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David Lat's avatar

From a former clerk who’s now a Biglaw partner:

“Some judges are below-average bosses, but some clerks are below-average employees. I know of some great judges (and great bosses) who had clerks who left midstream because the clerks themselves had problems that made them unsuitable for demanding positions. I think this is especially true now, when law students are being told that they should be coddled—not have to work very hard, not have to listen to opinions they dislike, etc.”

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David Lat's avatar

As I often like to do, I'll kick things off by posting a comment I received from a reader, in response to this observation:

"Clerks do quit, half of all judges are below-median employers (by definition), and the median is not necessarily that high."

The comment:

"Aren't federal judges as a group vastly different from employers writ large? Given the qualifications and background checks required of judges, you would think that they would be—in the aggregate, acknowledging outliers—far better bosses than the average supervisor in the average workplace."

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